Max McNown’s Leave On A Light Proves He’s Got Plenty More Stories to Tell
Review by Lauren Page | @LiveWithLP
Does Max McNown ever stop making music? I’m beginning to think he’s the busiest man in country music, but you won’t catch me complaining about a new Max record.
Leave On A Light is his third studio album, and he hasn’t exactly kept it brief. Seventeen songs! Nine of them were released before the album arrived, which did make me wonder how much there would be left to discover on release day. I’d already had plenty of time to fall in love with some of them. Could the full record really top that?
Well, I should probably have trusted Max.
Slow Down, Slow Down opens the album and went straight into my playlist. It has that unmistakable McNown warmth, a chorus you pick up almost immediately and a title that’s quite funny coming from a man who appears to release music every five minutes. There’s a grounded feeling to it, though, that sets up the rest of the record beautifully.
Then comes First Born Daughter. As the eldest daughter, I felt this one in my bones. Yes, Max is singing about his wife, but that’s exactly why his songwriting works: he can tell a story about someone in his life and somehow make you think of the people in yours. I’ve played it an unreasonable number of times already. Triple platinum in my household, at least.
Done For is the sort of track I can already hear a crowd singing back to him. It’s been teased plenty online, and I reckon it’ll only get bigger when he takes it on stage. Something to Someone follows with more of that indie folk sound I love from him, before Selah’s Song brings everything a little closer to home.
Written for his younger sister, Selah’s Song is genuinely beautiful. McNown looks back on them growing up together without making the memory feel overly polished or distant. It’s personal, and you can hear why it matters to him. These little pieces of his real life are what make an album of this size feel like more than a collection of songs he happened to have ready.
World Change Me caught me off guard in a good way. It feels a little different for Max, but he sounds comfortable taking that turn. He has longtime collaborator Jamie Kenney producing, with Julian Bunetta among the writers and Charlie Worsham contributing as a musician, and there’s room here for McNown to stretch his sound without losing the songwriting at its centre.
I do think the album loses a touch of momentum in the middle. Famous to You, Same, Same Sun and Isn’t That Love are lovely in their own ways, but stacked together, they keep us in the slower lane for quite a while. I wanted something to come bursting through and shake things up.
Thankfully, Heart You Didn’t Break understood the assignment. This one is folky, unmistakably Max and absolutely made to be played in a field full of people with their arms in the air. If he brings it to a festival next summer, I’ll be there shouting along.
Comets is another strong moment, and Make My Peace brings back some much-needed pace. I can already picture the music video for that one. But if we’re talking about songs I’ll be returning to most, Standstill (My My My) might be my winner. It’s ridiculously catchy. One listen and it had moved into my head without paying rent.
There’s more storytelling in Greatest Audience of All, while The Way She Says Goodbye gives us another welcome lift. Space For You slows things down again, but by this point, I’m happy to sit with him. Across the record, it feels like McNown is letting himself follow whatever a song needs, whether that’s a chorus built for a crowd or something much quieter.
But the final track? The Room.
This is where the album really lands for me. His vocal takes centre stage, and the spoken words at the end leave you with the sense of someone who’s grateful for everything happening around him but still curious about how far he can go.
After 17 songs about the people he loves, the memories he carries and the person he’s becoming, it’s a fitting place to leave us.
Would I have moved a couple of the slower tracks around? Yes. Did releasing nine songs beforehand take away a bit of the first-listen surprise? Also yes. But Leave On A Light still has plenty to give beyond its singles, and its best moments are among my favourite Max McNown songs yet.
Three studio albums in, he’s still writing with heart, trying new things and apparently refusing to take a day off. Good for him. Bad for anyone trying to keep their playlist up to date.
Leave On A Light by Max McNown is out now